Canada’s military has again delayed the opening of a major new Arctic port, a sign the government is struggling to assert sovereignty over a remote resource-rich region. The planned deep water naval facility at Nanisivik – some 3,100 km (1,900 miles) north of Ottawa – is one of the key components of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s “use it or lose it” approach to the Arctic. The port, initially due to open in 2012, will now not be operational until 2018.

In 1965, the aircraft carrier USS Midway was bombing Vietnam. VA-25, an attack aviation unit of the Navy, operated from the Midway. In October, one of the toilets on the ship cracked. The crew planned to dispose of it. Commander Bill Stoddard, the executive officer of VA-25, came up with a novel way to get rid of the toilet. To celebrate the six millionth pound of ordnance dropped by his unit, Cdr. Stoddard had the toilet painted with the "Fist of the Fleet" emblem of his unit. It was then loaded onto his Skyraider. Cdr. Stoddard dropped it on a...

â€‹The US Navy has been wowing people with electromagnetic railguns, a long-range electrically-powered weapon, in concept and prototyâ€‹pe for years now. But the single big obstacle that keeps the railgun off boats remains the same as it ever was: ships canÂ’t generate enough power to fire them. At the Naval Future Force Science and Technology Expo, Vice Adm. William Hilarides explaineâ€‹d that three problems with the railgun remain: room on ships, integrating the new weapons with the old weapons systems, and powerÂ—as in, not enough of it. The railgun doesnÂ’t rely on chemical explosions like more conventional weapons. Instead, the...

India is fast tracking its project to build an indigenous aircraft carrier, since the country's oldest carrier is scheduled to retire next year, The Times Of India reports. India's current INS Viraat aircraft carrier is set to retire next year after 56 years of service in the Indian navy. With a fleet of only 11 aging Harrier jump jets and a host of mechanical and restoration costs, it isn't economically or strategically viable to continue operating the vessel. As the retirement will leave the Indian navy with only one other carrier, the INS Vikramaditya. So India has decided to speed...

It may not have been a shot heard around the world, but it certainly was a shot that reverberated throughout the United States Navy. No, it was not the scandal involving the censure of three U.S. Navy rear admirals for being on the take, which is bad enough. It was Navy war hero Sen. John McCain calling a fourth rear admiral "an idiot."

The US has paid $1.97m to the Philippines in compensation for damage caused to a protected reef. The Philippine foreign ministry said the money, the full amount requested, was paid in January and would be used to restore and protect the reef. The USS Guardian minesweeper ran aground on the Tubbataha Reef, a Unesco World Heritage Site, in January 2013. The ship was eventually dismantled to avoid causing further damage. The US apologised and removed four officers, including the commanding officer, for not following standard procedures. In May 2013 a US Navy investigation said the mishap was "wholly preventable" and...

What would happen if U.S. nuclear attack submarines—some of the most sophisticated and expensive American weapons of war—suddenly became obsolete? Imagine a scenario where these important systems became the hunted instead of the hunter, or just as technologically backward as the massive battleships of years past. Think that sounds completely insane? If advances in big data and new detection methods fuse with the anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) ambitions of nations like China and Russia, naval planners around the world might have to go back to the drawing board. Submarines: The New Battleship? The revelation is alluded to in a recent report...

North Korean state newspaper Rodong Sinmun released images on 7 February showing a new type of surface-to-surface missile (SSM) being fired from a surface-effects ship (SES) from the Korean People's Navy (KPN) Eastern Fleet. The images, which showed North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in attendance, were accompanied by an article translated by the English-language website KCNA Watch. The article noted that the test-firing proved in a "scientific" way that the capabilities of the long-rumoured vessel and its weapons system had reached design and engineering specifications.

Spending Pentagon spent $504,816 on Viagra last year By Elizabeth Harrington Published February 09, 2015 Washington Free Beacon The Department of Defense (DoD) spent more than a half a million dollars on the male enhancement drug Viagra last year, according to government contracts. The Pentagon issued 60 contracts worth$504,816 for the drug in 2014. All 60 contracts were awarded to Cardinal Health Inc., a pharmaceutical distribution company based in Dublin, Ohio. Last year DoD also ordered $3,505 worth of Levitra, and $14,540 of Cialis, other popular erectile dysfunction drugs. The contracts were filed under "Troop Support."

A radical new weapon that can fire a shell at seven times the speed of sound has been shown off in public for the first time. Described as 'Star Wars technology' by researchers, the railgun can fire shells at seven times speed of sound, and penetrate concrete 100 miles away. The weapon was on display to the public for the first time at the Naval Future Force Science and Technology EXPO at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.

The U.S. Navy’s next generation air superiority fighter will not be “super-duper fast” or employ much in the way of stealth, a senior navy official announced on Wednesday. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the Navy’s top officer, divulged some details about the Navy’s so-called Next Generation Air Dominance F/A-XX fighter jet during a speech at an industry conference. “I don’t see that it’s going to be super-duper fast, because you can’t outrun missiles.” Greenert said, the Washington Examiner reported. “And you can’t become so stealthy that you become invisible — you are going to generate a signature of...

It could be a great year for lasers and spy satellites, but a bad one for drones on aircraft carriers.President Barack Obama’s Defense Department budget request released Monday shows that the route to technological breakthroughs is often winding. Last year, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced a new “offset strategy” to develop breakthrough solutions to secure American technological dominance into the next century. This year, the budget request increases money for research and development by about $500 million, bringing it to $13.5 billion. It will be a great year for futuristic technologies that sound like they come from a comic book....

Despite what some people think, hero is not a synonym for competent government-hired killer.If Clint Eastwood's record-breaking movie, American Sniper, launches a frank public conversation about war and heroism, the great director will have performed a badly needed service for the country and the world. This is neither a movie review nor a review of the late Chris Kyle's autobiographical book on which the movie is based. My interest is in the popular evaluation of Kyle, America's most prolific sniper, a title he earned through four tours in Iraq. Let's recall some facts, which perhaps Eastwood thought were too obvious...

The U.S. Navy has introduced a multi-player video game to help train sailors in missile destruction and avoidance. The game has now been deployed to 30 ships, totaling 115 onboard personnel. According to the Office of Naval Research, the game, called Strike Group Defender: The Missile Matrix, calls on sailors to make split-second decisions in order to dodge missiles fired at a Navy ship. Sailors can choose to respond to the missiles with electronic means, which constitutes a “soft kill,” or more traditional methods like direct interception, called a “hard kill.”

Any millionaire can buy themselves a fancy yacht, but if you want a conversation piece ... well, it helps if it has a story behind it, and the Lockheed Martin-built Sea Slice certainly does. Launched in 1996 by the US Navy as a military support vessel, the experimental watercraft features a unique hull design that reportedly allows it to remain as stable as a conventional ship three times its size. It cost US$15 million to design and build, but you can have it now for the low, low price of just $180,000. The Sea Slice utilizes a variation on the...

Washington (AFP) - The US military will no longer divulge facts and figures about its costly effort to assist Afghan security forces, declaring the information top secret, officials said Thursday. The move marks an about-face for the Pentagon, which for the past six years has reported a range of data about the $65 billion program to build up the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). The information included how US taxpayers' money has been spent and the state of the troubled country's police and army. John Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction (SIGAR), voiced disappointment with the change and said...

**SNIP** Another glaring issue that still plagues U.S. military leaders today is the fact that we essentially changed teams in the Global War on Terror. Instead of aligning with important allies in the region, we began backing militias who are aligned with Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood, a group which Obama is quite familiar with and even friendly toward, have already began the process of accomplishing their goal to bring the U.S. to its knees and infiltrate all levels of U.S. government. Because Obama has embraced this radical group, who operate under the guise of the...

The officer in charge of the U.S. Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been fired for a “loss of confidence” after he allegedly had an affair with a woman whose husband was recently found dead in the waters off the base. Captain John Nettleton was relieved of command on Wednesday by Rear Adm. Mary M. Jackson, commander of Navy Region Southeast, “due to loss of confidence in Nettleton's ability to command,” according to a statement from the Navy. The statement declined to give additional details because of an ongoing investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), which is...

Sure, Sarah Palin can be quick to pounce when something rubs her wrong. But when Michael Moore and others take after the man behind box-office hit American Sniper it gets personal. "You're not fit to shine Chris Kyle's combat boots," the former Alaska governor and VP candidate wrote on her Facebook page Monday night after Moore, the liberal filmmaker, Tweeted that "snipers aren't heroes" – which many took as a reference to the Clint Eastwood film starring Bradley Cooper. It turns out that Palin and Kyle were friends. They met and bonded in 2011, when the retired Navy SEAL was...

The Navy captain in charge of the naval station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been fired and is being investigated in connection with an alleged affair with a woman on the base and the recent death of her husband, U.S. officials said Wednesday. Capt. John R. Nettleton was relieved of duty Wednesday due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command, the Navy said in a press release. The Navy would not comment on the details of the investigation. But U.S. officials said Nettleton is under investigation in connection with the death of Christopher Tur, who was found...

Iran and Russia signed an agreement Tuesday to expand military ties in a visit to Tehran by the Russian defense minister. Sergei Shoigu, in remarks carried by Russian news agencies, said Moscow wants to develop a "long-term and multifaceted" military relationship with Iran. He said that the new agreement includes expanded counter-terrorism cooperation, exchanges of military personnel for training purposes and an understanding for each country's navy to more frequently use the other's ports. Iran's Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan urged greater cooperation as a means of opposing American ambitions in the region. Moscow and Tehran have staunchly supported Syrian President...

The U.S. Navy’s surface fleet is getting more aggressive, with new tactics and weapons. The United States Navy plans to re-organize and re-equip its surface fleet by grouping ships into small surface action groups and increasing the number of anti-ship weapons on more platforms. The U.S. Navy calls this tactical shift “distributed lethality.” Breaking Defense quotes, Rear Admiral Peter Fanta and his rough summary of the concept of “distributed lethality”: “If it floats, it fights, that’s ‘distributed lethality’ (…) Make every cruiser, destroyer, amphib, LCS, a thorn in somebody else’s side.” Fanta, the director for Surface Warfare on the Navy...

Reddit users were asked “What’s the laziest thing you’ve ever done?” And one former sailor’s response is so incredible we had to share it. We usually only write about Alabama-related things, so let’s just assume this took place aboard one of the Alabama-built Littoral Combat Ships. I was once on a US military ship, having breakfast in the wardroom (officers lounge) when the Operations Officer (OPS) walks in. This guy was the definition of NOT a morning person; he’s still half asleep, bleary eyed… basically a zombie with a bagel. He sits down across from me to eat his bagel...

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — An Afghani man’s heroism inspired a movie as he risked it all to save in American, but he himself has become the one in need. As CBS2’s Scott Rapoport reported, Mohammed Gulab is a simple Afghani villager, but he is as brave a hero as there is. Just ask Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell, whose life Gulab saved at great personal peril. “He very well could have just left me laying there on the side of that waterfall and let me die,” Luttrell said. “But he didn’t.” In a remarkable story depicted in the movie “Lone Survivor”...

The Ministry of Defence has been forced to ask the US for help as it hunts for a suspected Russian submarine believed to be lurking off the coast of Scotland. Two U.S Navy aircraft were this week drafted in to carry out patrols in the North Atlantic in a bid to bridge the 'gaping chasm' in Britain's anti-submarine capability. It comes after the RAF's £4bn fleet of 'spy-in-the-sky' Nimrod surveillance aircraft was controversially scrapped in 2010, amid warning it would weaken Britain's defences.

Navy veteran, 100, cheered for standing up to protesters at medal ceremony Published January 05, 2015 FoxNews.com A 100-year-old U.S. Navy veteran drew cheers from a crowd in Oregon Saturday after telling protesters shouting "hands-up, don't shoot!" to stop interrupting his medal ceremony and to “show a little respect.” Dario Raschio was at Portland Community College's Southeast Campus to be honored by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, at a public town hall meeting. But shortly after Wyden began speaking, more than 100 demonstrators in the back of the room started shouting, The Oregonian reports. After 15 minutes of chanting against the...

Thousands of sailors get out of the Navy every year because they want to start a family. Or to enroll in school. Or because they are burned out on frequent deployments and months away from home. With the national unemployment rate dropping and more service members leaving for the private sector, the chief of naval personnel says he wants to do everything he can to keep the best sailors in uniform longer — even if that means letting them go for a while. “We need to offer meaningful incentives to keep the best talent we can, both men and women,”...

At this point, it's not even funny how much the Pentagon has screwed up the development of its new stealth fighter jet, the F-35. But the latest report that the jet's 25mm cannon won't be operational until 2019 at the earliest is just laughable. Even more laughable is that it probably doesn't even need the gun to begin with. Unnamed Air Force officials revealed the bad news in a Daily Beast story about the F-35. Apparently the software that will power the four-barreled rotary cannon on the Air Force version of the jet, the F-35A, won't be ready for at...

Russia’s third Borei-class nuclear-powered submarine Vladimir Monomakh has officially become part of the Russian Navy. Armed with Bulava ballistic missiles, the SSBNs of this class are the planet’s most advanced nuclear deterrence tool. Read more at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=877_1419144372#6lpwsZ5c7V7SzrzT.99

The recent (and very low profile) announcement by the U.S. Department of Defense of a Foreign Military Sale (FMS) of MK 41 Vertical Launching Systems (VLS) to Saudi Arabia could possibly be an indication of the procurement of Littoral Combat Ships or DDG-51 type (Burke class) Destroyers by the Royal Saudi Navy. Here is Navy Recognition's take on it. On December 12, 2014, the U.S. Department of Defense announced the following contract award: Lockheed Martin Corp., Mission Systems and Training, Baltimore, Maryland, is being awarded a $235,329,189 firm-fixed-price contract for MK 41 Vertical Launching System (VLS) electronic and mechanical modules...

SAN DIEGO, Calif. – The worst storm to slam sunny San Diego in the past six years has encouraged thousands of sailors to repent for their sins and seek the unconditional forgiveness of the omniscient deity of their choosing, sources confirmed Friday. Many service members elected to remain home and spend their last moments with their families — except those on duty — who were tasked with bringing two animals of every kind aboard their ships. “Duty is duty,” proclaimed an unidentified master chief. Read more: http://www.duffelblog.com/2014/12/san-diego-rain-us-navy/#ixzz3Lmkeq5HW

Army will be looking to snap a 12-game losing streak to Navy when the two service academies meet for the 115th time Saturday at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. CBS will broadcast the game at 2 p.m. Central, with live streaming available at CBSSports.com. The Black Knights are 4-7 this season, while the Midshipmen are 6-5. Here are five things you might not know about the Army-Navy rivalry:1. Few major-college rivalries are older Among rivalries between FBS schools, only three are older than Army vs. Navy, which was first played on Nov. 29, 1890. Only North Carolina-Wake Forest (Oct. 18,...

The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council said on Tuesday that it will create a regional police force based out of the United Arab Emirates’ capital of Abu Dhabi, and a joint naval force based out of Bahrain. The creation of the police force, known as GCC-POL, and the naval force, was announced at the conclusion of the Gulf bloc’s annual summit in Qatar. It comes amid a sharp tumble in oil prices that is likely to impact the energy-rich states, and their reconciliation from a spat linked to Doha’s support for Islamist groups throughout the region. […] The Arab Gulf countries...

NORFOLK, Va. – A Navy civilian engineer has been indicted on charges he tried to steal schematics of an aircraft carrier under construction and have them sent to Egypt. Federal prosecutors said Mostafa Ahmed Awwad, 35, of Yorktown, Virginia, was arrested Friday on two counts of attempted exportation of defense articles and technical data. Prosecutors said Awwad tried to steal technical data in the designs of the USS Gerald R. Ford in late October. Awwad provided computer drawings downloaded from the Navy to an undercover FBI agent posing as an Egyptian intelligence officer. The Ford is the lead ship in...

Some of the Navy's first female submariners were secretly videotaped while undressing and showering on board the USS Wyoming, a ballistic missile submarine, service officials confirmed Wednesday. Navy officials are investigating a 24-year old male sailor who is accused of making and distributing the videos, according to a Nov. 14 incident report circulated among the service's senior leaders, according to Navy Times, which first reported the story. The male sailor has only been identified as a second class petty officer, according to Navy Times.

For days, nearly every news media outlet has been consumed with the Ferguson fallout. From coast to coast, pundits and populations have been debating the efficacy of justice and demonstrations. But maybe a true solution for Ferguson -- and every other social skirmish like it -- can only be found in changing the narrative. I think I found it -- or him -- at Pearl Harbor, and just in time for its 73rd anniversary. You know the history. On a quiet Sunday morning, Dec. 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on U.S. military bases on the Hawaiian island of...

Australia has officially welcomed its largest ever warship to the Naval fleet in a ceremony at Sydney's Garden Island. Before a cheering crowd of more than 1500 on Friday, NUSHIP Canberra became the HMAS Canberra, entitled to fly the historical white ensign in the name of the nation. Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove and Navy Chief Vice-Admiral Tim Barrett attended the ceremony, together with family members of the ship's 400-strong crew. PM Tony Abbott said it marked a proud day for the Navy and for Australia. 'We are a nation girt by sea. So it is the...

The Russian Navy on Friday successfully test-fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile for a second time in as many months, proving its reliability following a troublesome development. The Defense Ministry said the Alexander Nevsky nuclear submarine test-fired a Bulava missile from an underwater position in the Barents Sea. The missile's warheads reached designated targets at a testing range in Russia's far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula. The Bulava suffered many failures during a decade of tests, raising doubts about the fate of Russia's most expensive and ambitious weapons program since the Soviet collapse. But a series of recent launches has been successful...

'The Royal Navy may ask US squadrons to fly off its new aircraft carrier following delays to its new F35B fighters, BBC Newsnight has learned. MoD insiders said the US Marine Corps would be offered the use of HMS Queen Elizabeth II for flight operations. The UK plans to have its first F35 squadron operational by 2018, but Newsnight has learned that there may be further delays.'

One of the many new weapons shown for the first time Airshow China this year was the China Aerospace Science Industrial Corporation (CASIC) CX-1 Mach 3 cruise missile. The PRC’s defense industrial complex has a number of cruise missiles that can be either ship- or air-launched, and each successive show at Zhuhai seems to generate new models. So this missile is not a major breakthrough in Chinese defense technology. What makes the CX-1 unusual is its close resemblance to another missile that is well-known to the rest of the world: the joint Indian-Russian project, the BrahMos. The uncanny similarity of...

ABOARD HDMS NILS JUEL IN THE CHESAPEAKE BAY — It is striking how the now-familiar smooth, angled architecture of today’s warships, intended to reduce visual, heat and other signatures, is also somehow inherently Danish-modern. And the first thing one notices after boarding this ship is how clean and spotless everything is — almost relentlessly clean. “We clean the ship every day,” said Lt. Cmdr. Kenneth Jensen, the ship’s operations officer. “It’s easier to keep a clean ship clean than to clean a dirty ship.” The Nils Juel is the Danish Navy’s newest warship, handed over only in August. It’s the...

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy’s surface fleet is in need of some short-term payload adjustments to regain an advantage in offensive surface strike capabilities. “The surface fleet today really can’t do offensive sea control,” said Bryan Clark, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), a Washington think tank, and a former special assistant to the chief of naval operations, speaking to reporters Nov. 17. Clark, author of the new CSBA assessment, “Commanding the Seas: A Plan to Reinvigorate U.S. Navy Surface Warfare,” said the Navy needs a short-term — meaning by 2025 — adjustment in its...

GROTON, Conn. — Authorities say two Navy civilian police officers have been wounded while confronting a knife-wielding man at a Connecticut base. Navy officials say an officer guarding the submarine base in Groton Thursday night fired shots at the man who allegedly had tried to enter through a pedestrian gate. Authorities say one officer was injured by the ricochet of bullets. The second officer suffered a minor stab wound to the leg. Both have been treated and released from a local hospital.

A senior Navy intelligence officer has been removed from his position due to comments made regarding aggressive Chinese military movements that ran counter to the Pentagon’s talking points on the issue, according to the Navy Times. Capt. James Fanell was removed from his position as the director of intelligence and information operations at U.S. Pacific Fleet. Fanell was reassigned within the command. Though neither the Navy nor Fanell commented on the reason for the personnel change, it is widely believed to be due to an internal investigation of his comments on China, according to the report. Fanell warned during a...

Protesters yelling “Yankee go home!” attacked three U.S. sailors in Istanbul, Turkey, on Wednesday, while the warship USS Ross was in port. The sailors were not injured and all returned to the ship, said Capt. Greg Hicks, a spokesman for U.S. European Command.

WASHINGTON – Worried about collateral damage to whales, dolphins and other marine life, environmentalists are fighting the U.S. Navy in court in a bid to protect the creatures of the sea from war games in the Pacific Ocean. "The worst harm comes from the explosives going off," said David Henkin, an attorney for EarthJustice. U.S. Navy testing and war games are underway in American waters off the coasts of California and Hawaii. The drills amount to critical practice for the military and last through 2018, but environmental groups like EarthJustice say hundreds of marine mammals will die or get injured...

A Fremont native is playing a key role in a historical transition taking place in the U.S. Navy. Capt. Paul D. Young on Friday became the first commodore of LCS Squadron 2, a new unit created by the Navy to launch a class of ships that is still under construction. Young assumed his leadership post during a command establishment ceremony at the Mayport Naval Station in Florida. The task before him is nothing less than building the new squadron from the ground up, and then overseeing six new Littoral Combat Ships as they are put to sea. His first two...

The commander of US Navy SEALs has issued a stinging rebuke to troops who have broken the elite force's hallowed tradition of secrecy and humility by publishing memoirs and speaking to the media. Days after the Fox News network announced it would broadcast a documentary with a commando who claims to have shot Osama bin Laden, Rear Admiral Brian Losey, the head of Naval Special Warfare Command, wrote to his troops denouncing anyone who seeks fame or fortune by revealing details of secret missions. "A critical tenet of our Ethos is 'I do not advertise the nature of my work,...